Sam Chang flip-flops on Flushing

Hotelier, who was hot on neighborhood in September, sells in October

Hotelier Sam Chang's feelings on Flushing have changed in the last month.
Hotelier Sam Chang's feelings on Flushing have changed in the last month.

“The market is hot in Flushing right now,” McSam Hotel Group’s Sam Chang told The Real Deal just last month, enthusiastic about future plans for condo towers and two hotels at 40-70 Delong Street in Queens. Turns out Chang’s Flushing honeymoon phase has passed, as he is now apparently in contract to sell the development site.

“I don’t believe in this market,” Chang told the New York Observer today, the only comment reported for why he decided to deal the site, which includes 557,549 square feet of buildable space, for a $44.5 million fee. His plans there originally included a 100-room extended-stay hotel, a 300-room four-star hotel and two condominium towers totaling 111 units, but Chang has apparently lost faith.

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Chang, who currently sports no fewer than nine hotels under construction, has built hotels in Flushing in the past, but the now-defunct plans for 40-70 Delong Street would have been his first condominiums there in many years. He purchased the land in 2006 for $26 million.

McSam Hotel Group in-house general counsel Brian Wrynn, who tipped the Observer on the sale, did not share the buyer. Chang and his representatives could not immediately be reached for comment. [NYO]TRD